Conscientious objector

that defending South Vietnam from communist aggression was in the national interest” (Weeks). Many soldiers tried to resist being drafted for the war, one of which was the heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Years later Ali declared himself a “conscientious objector” for which he earned a three-year ban from boxing (Vietnam War Protest). The purpose of the revolution was to force the authorities to withdraw complete American involvement. The movement went on for eight continuous years and ended…

The Holocaust is thought to have begun on January 30, 1933 when Adolf Hitler was appointed German chancellor and set in motion the Nazi genocide against the Jews. The Nazi movement trafficked in hatred and anti-Semitism. Hitler blamed the Jews for all the issues that came to Germany, from communism to inflation and for the defeat of Germany in World War 1. At first, Hitler’s focus was economic. He asked Germans to boycott Jewish owned businesses and he also barred Jews from jobs in civil service…

younger generation of America fails to recognize his legacy. Zirin mentions in What's My Name Fool that Hall of Fame Baseball player Bob Feller objected to Ali throwing the first pitch in a game because of his refusal to enter the draft. Being a conscientious objector is less of a stigma than it once was. Only scholars, and the older generations who lived to experience Ali in his prime, truly understand Ali’s legacy that the current generation is ignorant to see Ali as he clearly was. had been…

changed from drafting the oldest man first to selecting civilians according to their date of birth.” This would remove any sense of duty to the situation and would then see it as a lottery to die. As Fitzgerald quotes Dr. Barry Spatz who was a conscientious objector “I think that I, and those like me, are the true patriots, the true dissenters, who tried to stop 50,000 of our generation coming home in bags.” This showed that the war was becoming very unpopular with those at home because of the…

The Post-War World II era saw the start of a transformation in the attitudes toward and the treatment of mental illness in the United States that was most significantly marked by the passing of the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA: Public Law 88-164). The Community Mental Health Act––passed under President John F. Kennedy’s administration and notable innitiative––was revolutionary in proposing the implementation of two novel concepts that largely contributed to the…

Hinduism is a belief that can suit a large variety of people. Based on personality type or choice, a person can select his or her individual path to God through four types of yoga: Bhakti, Jnana, Karma, and Raja. At any point in time when they a parishioner feels as a form of yoga is no longer guiding them to enlightenment, he or she can choose a different yoga of his or her choice in order to further himself or herself on the path to reach Atman. Although Hinduism has a general outline for…

The NAACP’s monthly publication The Crisis, from April through September 1944, illustrates the wide purview of opinion present in the organization with regards to its view of the Second World War. The picture of the war that The Crisis paints is one quite different than the traditional story of racial unification and brotherhood put forth in the discussion of World War Two for African-Americans so often in basic history courses. The Black soldier in the mind of the magazine is a person that is…

to move to Canada or be imprisoned were seen as less courageous and less patriotic by others. Christian Appy illustrates this concept when writing about John Douglas Marshall. Marshall described that after he applied to leave the army as a conscientious objector, his grandfather wrote him a letter in which he told Marshall that he had “simply chickened out [and] didn’t have the guts it takes” (Appy…

life after death is unlikely to be willing to sacrifice his own life for the existence or the well-being of the state. Although, a religious person does not necessarily want to sacrifice himself or to kill others and may hold a position of conscientious objector. Since one of the dogmas of Rousseau’s civil religion is to accept the God, one can say that his or her life is given by God. Hence, it may be a duty for them to maintain their self-preservation and may not want to defend the state by…

The American Civil Rights Movement is characterized through several select personalities. These figures exhibited strong character throughout their careers in activism that revolutionized the ideals and opportunities of the 20th century, standing as precedents for courage and perseverance in the face of widespread systemic oppression. However, not all of these figures received the acknowledgment and acceptance that their legacy deserved. One such figure was Bayard Rustin, a lifelong Civil Rights…